Future of Fort Hancock debated

Jan. 24, 2013

Written by

@Khopkinsapp

LONG BRANCH — A panel of local stakeholders met for the first time Wednesday in what is to be an effort to map out the future of Fort Hancock at Sandy Hook.

The members of the Fort Hancock 21st Century Advisory Committee, composed of government officials, business people and other representatives of private-sector interests, first toured the beachfront park and were apprised by its superintendent that superstorm Sandy surprisingly did not cause structural damage to the fort’s historic buildings.

“The basements of many buildings had flooding, but there was surprisingly little damage to anything besides the things stored in the basements and the systems in those basements, and the water receded quickly,” Linda Canzanelli, superintendent of Gateway National Recreation Area, of which Sandy Hook is a part.

Although the buildings at Fort Hancock were not structurally damaged during Sandy, the superstorm caused severe damage to the roads and other infrastructure at the park, which remains closed indefinitely.

“Congress has not yet appropriated any storm-damage recovery money for Gateway, but we are planning for how we can do things differently, more sustainably and better, if or when we get this money,” Canzanelli said at the committee’s first meeting at the Ocean Place Resort and Spa. “As we move forward, it will be important to know what we want to do with Fort Hancock so we can incorporate that into the general management plan and other plans.’’

The general management plan to which Canzanelli was referring is a long-range planning document that Gateway is in the final phases of devising, that will describe what the future visitor experience at the park will be like.

As that process was underway, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, in September, named 20 people to the Fort Hancock 21st Century Advisory Committee, charging them to suggest ways to preserve and reuse the more than 30 historic buildings at Fort Hancock that were already deteriorating before Sandy dealt a whopping blow to the park.

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Canzanelli, who has said previously she doesn’t believe the government can afford to rehabilitate all of the historic buildings in the fort on its own, suggested at the committee meeting that the buildings are not beyond repair, and that others may have an interest in reusing them. But she said the committee and the park service must move quickly.

“Unfortunately, I don’t think that many of the buildings at Fort Hancock will be around much longer if we don’t find a use for them and someone to take care of them,” Canzanelli said.

Oliver Spellman, representing the New York-based National Parks Conservation Association, told the committee in the public-input portion of the meeting that he can envision Fort Hancock being used as a parade ground on July 4 and other holidays, offering an opportunity to show off its rich, military history. He said he believes there are groups out there willing to pitch in and save the fort.

“We love Sandy Hook and we think it has a wonderful future,” Spellman said. “You give us a plan, and we’ll get it implemented.”

Paul Klco of Mount Laurel, a tour guide for the National Park Service, touted Fort Hancock’s rich history as a coastal artillery site at the turn of the last century and later a missile base.

“It’s the only location on the East Coast that has all that history,” Klco said, urging that it be preserved.

Even James Wassel, the private developer who was once named to restore the buildings at Fort Hancock under a 60-year lease but who was evicted when he failed to obtain financing for the project, offered to lend his knowledge of the site to others who would undertake the project.

“I think it’s definitely going to be very challenging,” Middletown Mayor Anthony Fiore, a member of the committee, said of the task of deciding Fort Hancock’s future.

The committee is scheduled to reconvene today at 8:30 a.m. at the Ocean Place Resort and again will give the public an opportunity to offer input at 2 p.m.